Recently in the field of mobile terminals, reducing power consumption is being addressed from the perspective of extending battery life. For instance, the power consumed when a mobile terminal connects to the Internet varies according to the means of connection.
For example, communication schemes include those connecting to the Internet via a 3rd Generation (3G) antenna used for communication with 3G networks, as well as those connecting to the Internet via a wireless fidelity (Wifi) antenna used in Wifi communication. In comparing the two types of schemes, connecting to the Internet via a Wifi antenna consumes less power (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2008-529443, 2006-129019, 2006-197536).
Therefore, whenever possible, if a mobile terminal uses a Wifi antenna to connect to the Internet, power consumption by the mobile terminal can be reduced.
Conventionally, such technology for reducing power consumption involves preparing, onboard a vehicle (e.g., an automobile, a train, and a boat), a Wifi antenna communicable with the Wifi antenna of a mobile terminal, i.e., preparing an access point (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-153773).
Nevertheless with the technologies above, since telephone communication via the 3G antenna remains possible, the mobile terminal performs handover to maintain telephone communication quality with the 3G network, however, the mobile terminal also consumes power to perform handover. On the other hand, if the mobile terminal disables handover to reduce power consumption, the possibility that the mobile terminal cannot perform telephone communication increases.
In one aspect, an object of the present invention is to provide a communication system, a communication program, a communication apparatus, a mobile terminal, and a communication method to which the continuity of telephone communication by the mobile terminal is given consideration.